"One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all" -Abba Eban

“The sad truth about bigotry is that most bigots either don't realize that they are bigots, or they convince themselves that their bigotry is perfectly justified.” " - Wayne Gerard Trotman

This week's winner, Simply Jews withThe selective memory of Andrew Sullivan is a wonderfully written take down of the most recent blathering of a long time anti-semite posing as a public intellectual. Here's a slice:

Andrew Sullivan (Biased and Balanced), in his recent diatribe titled The Selective Secrecy Of Bill De Blasio is outing the slavish and unconditional adoration of Israel, displayed by the new left-liberal mayor of New York.

There is much to be said about the vehemence directed by the author at various institutions, related or unrelated to the subject. Starting with the omnipotent AIPAC, of course, that easily opened the industrial-sized bile eruption, proceeding with Israel that lately seems to trigger the most poisonous qualities of the Biased and Balanced and, of course, poor Bill De Blasio himself: a politician that does what any politician in his position (two million or so Jewish citizens in his mighty domain) - would do.

Being handicapped by the rush of bile, Sullivan somewhat defangs his own attack, adding the following, rather thoughtlessly:

In both cases, this “greatest ally on earth” would have been extraordinarily counter-productive if it had been involved. That’s how useful an ally the country is in confronting our common enemies.

To remind those who grew up in the post-2003 years, US administration, exactly as in the Bush Senior years of the first Gulf war, has done its best not to use any overt Israeli assistance due to automatic Muslim displeasure in view of such assistance, and Sullivan must know it, letting it slip into his text, albeit in a abbreviated manner.

But this is only one side of the coin, and there is the other, more important one, obviously known well to Andrew Sullivan. When you read the tons of drivel produced by the usual "anti-Zionist" suspects on the invasion of Iraq of 2003, you will get an impression that Israeli PM of the time (Ariel Sharon), heading a huge crowd of Zio-neocons, practically planned the invasion from day one. Here is an article by late Ami Isseroff of 2005: The Jews started the war - Once again

More and more, we hear that the "Zionists" are responsible for the Iraq war. The germ of the idea was always there, especially since it was convenient for Saddam apologists to blame the war on Israel and the Jews. However, it was probably given respectability by Jason Vest's article in the Nation which asserted, with no evidence whatever, that all the war hysteria against Iraq was being generated by an obscure pro-Zionist thinktank, with the unfortunate name of Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Vest's notions were soon parroted in the Guardian by Brian Whitaker. The coming Iraq war, according to Whitaker and Vest, would enthrone Israel and the US in the Middle East, and eliminate the need for Israel to come to terms with the Palestinians.

Yep, and later came the ubiquitous Juan Cole**, Mearsheimer/Walt and others, raising the dirty libel to the status of "scientific conclusion". As a result, any neo-Nazi website will tell you that the Zionists pushed naive and innocent Bush and the Pentagon into the war, with it (so far) 10 subsequent years of bloodshed in Iraq.

However, this version of history couldn't be farther from the truth. Here is what a Salon.com (not a very pro-Israeli outfit by any means) author has to say:

Another widely held belief regarding the administration's various motivations for starting the Iraq War was that Israel and its supporters pressured Bush to eliminate a threat posed by Saddam Hussein....Unfortunately, the Iraq War has disrupted the entire region, emboldened and empowered Iran like never before and, as such, placed Israel in considerably greater peril.As it turns out, countless Israeli politicians, military leaders and academics predicted this, and vigorously tried to warn Bush.According to former administration official Lawrence Wilkerson, Israeli officials warned the Bush administration that an invasion of Iraq would destabilize the entire region and urged the United States to instead target Iran as the primary enemy.Wilkerson, then a member of the State Department's Policy Planning Staff and later Chief of Staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, revealed in a 2007 interview that the Israelis reacted immediately to indications the Bush administration was planning to invade Iraq. Wilkerson noted that when the Israeli government picked up signs of that intention, "The Israelis were telling us Iraq is not the enemy. Iran is the enemy." Wilkerson described the Israeli message to the Bush administration in early 2002 as being, "If you are going to destabilize the balance of power, do it against the main enemy [Iran]."Wilkerson described the warning against invading Iraq - conveyed to the administration by a wide range of Israeli sources, including political figures, intelligence and private citizens - as "pervasive."

In our non-Council category, the winner was Stormbringer with The Real Afghanistan: A Marine Point Of View submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD. While I suspect that this first hand account of war in Afghanistan is one that's been passed around for awhile and embroidered a bit, It's a fine bit of writing and much of it is undoubtedly true. Do read it.

And lest we forget, today is Council Alumnus and noted author Trever Loudon's birthday! Many more, and keep up the fight.

See you next week! Don't forget to tune in on Monday AM for this week's Watcher's Forum, as the Council and their invited special guests take apart one of the provocative issues of the day with short takes and weigh in...don't you dare miss it. And don't forget to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.....'cause we're cool like that!